Cheat Sheets

Bridge bids have a legal ranking structure all their own. Remember that each new bid any player makes must outrank the previous one. During the bidding, players call out their bids to communicate information[more…]

Making the opening bid in a hand of bridge can be nerve-wracking for novices. After the cards are dealt, you pick them up, sort them, and evaluate the strength of your hand. You may get a chance to make[more…]

Your bridge partner has opened the bidding. Congratulations! Your side has made the first step toward determining the best contract. Now it’s your turn at bat. Get ready to tell your partner, the opener[more…]

Captain on the bridge! In bridge, the captain is the one who makes the final decision of how high to bid. During the bidding in a game of bridge, each player tries to determine his partner’s strength and[more…]

When playing bridge, sometimes you (the responder) have a long, strong suit. Strong six-card suits, especially major suits, were made to be bid and rebid. But don’t forget that you also have to tell your[more…]

After one of your bridge opponents opens the bidding and your partner overcalls, you need to repond to that overcall. You know that your partner has a five- or six-card suit — more often than not, a five-card[more…]

Knowing when to make a penalty double (a bridge bid that tells your partner and the world that the opponents have overreached themselves) is truly the hallmark of a winning player. You’re most apt to lash[more…]

In bridge, the penalty double offers a formidable weapon that keeps your opponents from stepping all over you. If they know that you won’t ever double them, they’ll take all kinds of liberties in the bidding[more…]

To know when your small cards in a hand of bridge are winners, you must become familiar with the dreaded c word, counting. If you count the cards in the suit you’re playing, you can tell whether your[more…]

When you play bridge, you need to understand how the cards are ranked and what the directions mean. You use all cards in a standard deck (except the Jokers) for bridge. The directions correspond to the[more…]

In bridge, a slam comes in two varieties, small and grand. A small slam involves bidding and taking 12 of the 13 tricks, and, therefore, involves bidding to a six-level contract. A grand slam requires[more…]

Depending on which cards you and your partner hold in a hand of bridge, your side may hold some definite winners, called sure tricks — tricks you can take at any time right from the start. You count your[more…]

Depending on which cards you and your bridge partner hold in a hand, your side may have some definite winners, called sure tricks.Sure tricks are those that you can take at any time right from the get-go[more…]

In bridge, you can create winning tricks in a suit, even if you don’t have the ace. When you have all the honors in a suit except the ace, you can attack that suit early and drive out the ace from your[more…]

In a hand of bridge, when you’re missing just the ace, you can establish the suit easily by drawing out the ace. However, if you’re missing both the ace and the king, you have to give up the lead twice[more…]

Sometimes, the honor cards that you hold in a hand of bridge have a big hole in them. For example, you might have the ace, queen, and jack in a suit. But what can you do without the king? You can fill[more…]

When playing bridge, never forget this simple and powerful rule: When attacking an unequally divided suit,where either your hand or the dummy holds more cards than the other in that suit, play the high[more…]

If you don’t have any of a suit’s three top dogs (the ace, king, or queen) in a hand of bridge, but you have four or more cards in the suit, you can still scrape a trick or two out of the suit. When you[more…]

When you establish tricks in bridge, you make sure you have winning cards by playing or forcing out your opponents' higher cards. You have to be sure that you can take enough tricks to meet your contract[more…]